What You Should Know About the Gardasil HPV Vaccine
   by James Occhiogrosso, N.D.

Health Naturally - Home Page

In June of 2006, the FDA licensed the Gardasil vaccine as a prophylactic (preventative) agent against four types of genital human papillomavirus (HPV). Routine vaccination was recommended for girls aged 11 to 12 but could be started as young as 9 years, and catch up vaccination could be initiated for unvaccinated girls and women aged 13 to 26 years. The vaccination consists of a three-course series, estimated to cost approximately $360. This makes it one of the most expensive vaccines ever.

After its approval, Gardasils’ manufacturer (Merck) began to lobby lawmakers to make vaccination with Gardasil mandatory for all little girls. Shortly thereafter, Texas and Virginia had made the vaccinations mandatory and about twenty other states were considering similar legislation. In early 2007, due to the extreme outcry from parents, advocacy groups and public health experts, Merck stopped lobbying state legislatures to pass legislation requiring mandatory vaccination with Gardasil.

However, unless you live on another planet or you just never turn on your T.V., you know that the push to have every child (now including little boys) vaccinated with Gardasil, is still in full force only now the lobbying is directed at the public through media advertising. If you have not seen the T.V. ad for Gardasil, click here to watch a YouTube video. Note that if you stay on the site after watching the first video, you see several more videos from around the world pushing Gardasil.

Do the math folks—Gardasil vaccination is estimated to cost between $300 and $400 per child. Just the U.S. group of about 2 million girls between the ages of 11 and 12 will generate nearly one billion dollars of revenue for Merck. Add to that other potential groups; girls and women from 13 to 26, young boys, and the rest of the civilized world, and you have another blockbuster, multi-billion dollar revenue stream for Merck. Vioxx (also by Merck), was a multi billion-dollar drug too—before it was removed from the market for causing heart attacks and strokes.

So, what is the real story? According to the references shown at the end of this article:

• The overall prevalence of HPV types associated with cervical cancer is low.
• It is unwise to require a young girl with a very low lifetime risk of cervical cancer to be vaccinated.
• Approximately 90% of women with new HPV infections clear the infection within 2 years.
• There are more than 100 HPV strains—the vaccine targets only 2 oncogenic (cancer inducing) strains.
• The relationship between infection with HPV and development of cervical cancer 20 to 40 years later is not proven.
• It is impossible to predict the effect of vaccination on the incidence of cervical cancer in 20-40 years.
• Serious questions regarding effectiveness of the vaccine remained to be answered.
• More long-term studies were called for in 2007 but none have been published since then.

In addition to the above shortcomings, a total of 12,424 reports of adverse events from Gardasil were reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). A total of 772 of these reports (6.2%) described serious adverse events, including 32 reports of death. These events included hypersensitivity and local site reactions, urticaria (hives), anaphylaxis (a life threatening allergic reaction), syncope (fainting), Guillain-Barré syndrome, transverse myelitis (an inflammatory reaction of the spinal cord), pancreatitis, dizziness, autoimmune disorders, nausea, headache, venous thromboembolic events (blood clots), and motor neuron disease.

These events occurred immediately or soon after vaccination. As with any new drug or vaccine, it is impossible to predict unexpected side effects that may occur many years in the future. Remember how hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was viewed as the ultimate cure-all for all women’s menopausal problems? That paradigm lasted about two decades until it was established that HRT increased a women’s risk of developing cancer or having a stroke! There has been no long-term testing of the Gardasil vaccine, and thus, no one can foresee if it will have major adverse side effects that develop years after vaccination.

In its advertising, the manufacturer promotes Gardasil as a vaccination that prevents cervical cancer when in truth it is a vaccination that is targeted to prevent only 2 of 100 possible types of HPV infections. While HPV infections are associated with cervical cancer—there is no proof that they cause it. As mentioned in the JAMA articles referenced, most HPV infections are self-clearing, and very few may actually result in cervical cancer. While in theory, the vaccine might prevent a small number of cervical cancer cases, this has not been proven, but you would not know that from viewing the T.V. advertisement!

Testing of the Gardasil vaccine was done over about a five-year period. Cervical cancer can take 20-40 years to develop. Are you—as a parent or grandparent willing to risk your child’s current health for a slim, unproven possibility of protection against cervical cancer that may or may not develop 20-40 years downstream? And, are you willing to accept that this so-called protection may have severe side effects that are not currently known?

References:

1.       Lawrence O. Gostin, JD, LLD; Catherine D. DeAngelis, MD, MPH, “Mandatory HPV Vaccination - Public Health vs Private Wealth”, JAMA Vol. 297 No. 17, May 2, 2007

2.       Charlotte Haug, MD, PhD, MSc, “The Risks and Benefits of HPV Vaccination”, JAMA Vol. 302 No. 7, August 19, 2009

3.       Barbara A. Slade, MD, MS; Laura Leidel, RN, FNP-C, MPH; Claudia Vellozzi, MD, MPH; Emily Jane Woo, MD, MPH; Wei Hua, MD, PhD; Andrea Sutherland, MD, MSc, MPH; Hector S. Izurieta, MD, MPH; Robert Ball, MD, MPH; Nancy Miller, MD; M. Miles Braun, MD, MPH; Lauri E. Markowitz, MD; John Iskander, MD ,  “Postlicensure Safety Surveillance for Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus Recombinant Vaccine”, JAMA, Vol. 302 No. 7, August 19, 2009